


These People Raised Me

by mandaestella



Category: Alexbelle
Genre: F/M, christmas 2017, etc - Freeform, prom night stuff, this is just some self-serving fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13095471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandaestella/pseuds/mandaestella
Summary: One friend left to sell clothes / One works down by the coast / One had two kids but lives alone / One’s brother overdosed / One’s already on his second wife / One’s just barely getting byBut these people raised me and I can’t wait to go homeWhen Alex goes home for Christmas for the first time in a long time, he reminisces about prom and high school parties and his six best friends. He hasn’t seen them in years, but when they all get back together it’s like nothing has changed.





	These People Raised Me

Alex hadn’t gone back to Charlotte in years. He had meant to, of course. His family was there. Some of his friends were still there. He’d always had the best of intentions. But between school, then work… well, it had been a long time. But his mom was hosting Christmas for his extended family this year, and she had begged, pleaded, even bribed him with the promise of a home-cooked meal, trying to convince him to make the long drive from New York down to North Carolina.

 

He could have flown, sure. But he did love a good road trip, and driving would make it a hell of a lot easier to bring his two pit bulls with him. So that’s how he found himself loading his bags into the car a few days before Christmas, getting ready to make the ten hour drive. He could do it all in one shot, stopping only to let the dogs out to go to the bathroom every couple of hours, just long enough to grab a burger from a greasy roadhouse.

 

He was excited. To see his mom and dad. His sisters. His brother. He had even dusted off some old numbers, texting his group of friends from high school. Jack, Dayo, Leven, Madeline, Liam. Isabelle. They were all going to get together for the first time in the seven years since they had graduated high school. They’d kept in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Alex knew the basics – where they lived, what they did, how old their kids were. But that was all he really knew now, so different from how it had been back then.

_When I was six years old I broke my leg_

_I was running from my brother and his friends_

_And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down_

_I was younger then_

Alex’s family had lived in Charlotte a long time, since way before Alex was born. His parents had been raised there, and they raised their family there. He had two sisters and one brother. He was the oldest, then Nick, then Natalie, then Sophia. They were really close, all four of them, and he saw them more now than he had when he was at home. Natalie was a model, so she was up in New York a lot, crashing in Alex’s spare bedroom most of the time. Sophia and Nick were both going to school up north, Nick at U Penn, Sophia at RISD.

 

He had always felt responsible for his siblings, back then and now. Nick had tagged along with them a lot when they were younger, always following his big brother and his friends around.

 

They loved him, especially the girls. They had grown up with each other, all of them. Isabelle and Madeline. Mark. Jack. Dayo. Leven. Add in Alex’s siblings, Leven’s brothers, Dayo’s sisters, and there was a whole group of them. Their parents were friends, getting together whenever they had time and bringing the kids along with them.

 

Mark, Jack, Dayo, and Alex had always been especially close. In high school, they called themselves the Wolf Pack, something that annoyed the girls to no end.

 

“If you’re the Wolf Pack, what are we?” Isabelle had whined to him one time at a bonfire.

 

He snorted, a stream of smoke trailing from his nostrils as he exhaled. She wrinkled her nose, waving it away. She hated that he smoked. “You can be part of the Pack too, Belle,” he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer, even as she leaned back, away from the smoke.

 

“You know that the female wolves are in charge, right? I don’t see you taking to that well.”

 

“What are you talking about? I take direction great.”

 

“That is a blatant lie.”

 

He leaned closer, taking a long drag off his cigarette and blowing smoke rings in her face. She laughed, pushing him away from her and dragging him closer the next second, resting her forehead against his shoulder. Leven came sauntering over, grabbing Alex’s cigarette and throwing it on the ground, stomping it out with her boot.

 

“What the fuck, Lev?”

 

She ignored him. “Just get rid of it, Is. He won’t stop you. He loves us too much.”

 

He did love them. All of them. He wouldn’t have made it through childhood without them, much less middle school and high school and applying to colleges. That’s why it was such a shame that they had fallen out of touch so quickly. He had known that they would. Everyone said you didn’t keep your high school friends when you went off to college. But he had really thought that they would be different.

 

_Take me back to when I found my heart and broke it here_

_Made friends and lost them through the years_

_And I’ve not seen the roaring fields in so long_

_I know I’ve grown_

_But I can’t wait to go home_

Alex had gone to prom with Leven. He didn’t mean for it to be that way. Neither had she for that matter. He was going to go with this cheerleader, Nicole, who had backed out at the last minute for some inexplicable reason. She didn’t give him much of an explanation, and honestly he didn’t really want one.

 

He had never really dated in high school. He just hadn’t wanted to. He was always with his friends. When he’d had girlfriends, they’d just gotten mad at him for being with other girls all the time, and he really wasn’t interested in that.

 

After Nicole had turned him down, he had gone up to the weight room at the school. It was a weird little spot, up some rickety metal stairs in the supply room. They had been remodeling theirs for what seemed like ages, although it had probably only been a couple of months. Until it was done, the administration had shoved all the weights and benches and mats upstairs, expecting the athletes to work out in ninety-degree heat in an un-air conditioned annex.

 

“Whatcha doing?” Alex heard, letting the bar drop onto the rack above him, ducking out from underneath it so he could sit up.

 

“Taking back Poland,” he said, grabbing his shirt off the floor to wipe the sweat off his face. He threw it at Leven, who dodged it, wrinkling her nose up. She sat down on the bench next to him. “How about you?”

 

“Yeah, same.” She was quiet for a little while, putting her hand on his leg. “I’m sorry about Nicole.”

 

“Oh, please.” Alex shrugged off her hand, standing up. “It’s really not a big deal. I could care less.”

 

“I know.” She looked up at him, gathering her hair up into a messy ponytail because holy shit, it was hot up here. “But it doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t hurt.”

 

“Aren’t you the one who always tells me I don’t have feelings?”

 

“It’s a joke, Alexander. We all know you’re secretly sensitive.”

 

“That’s a lie, so you better not go spreading that around, Rambin. I know where you live.”

 

She pulled him back down to sit next to her. “What are you gonna do now?”

 

Alex pushed her off the bench gently, settling himself down onto his back and grabbing the bar again. “I don’t know,” he said, bringing it down to his chest and pushing it back up with a grunt. He did a few more reps before Leven spoke again.

 

“You wanna go with me?”

 

He dropped the bar onto the rack with a bang, looking over at her. “Really? I don’t want to ruin your night.”

 

“Oh, shut up. Being with you will only make it matter.”

 

He sat up, pulling her up off the cement floor and forward between his legs, putting his hands on her waist. “I love you, Lev.”

 

“I love you too.” He kissed her forehead. “Always.”

 

So they were going to prom. All the girls got together, Leven going over to the Fuhrman household to get ready with Madeline and Isabelle. Alex met up with Jack and Dayo, throwing their rented tux jackets over the back of the sofa at Dayo’s house before going downstairs to take some quick shots. They were all going together, Madeline with Dayo and Isabelle with Jack. Mark was going with his girlfriend Julie who was awful and insufferable and had been around for far too long. But they tolerated her because they loved Mark that much.

 

After they had gotten a quick buzz on, the limo showed up and they all piled into it, grabbing their jackets and wallets and flasks on the way out and heading over to the Fuhrman’s house. The girls came out onto the sprawling front lawn, pulling on their shoes and fixing their hair.

 

They looked gorgeous, all of them. Leven’s hair was down around her shoulders, her dress bright red and floor length. Madeline’s hair was up, bangs sweeping across her forehead, dress big and white. But it was Isabelle who really caught his eye, dressed all in gold, hair down and stick straight, lips glossy and eyes smoky and cheeks flushed.

 

They took pictures and said good-bye to their parents and got in the limo to go to dinner, Alex boosting Isabelle in, sliding her across the seat ahead of him. He pulled Leven in after him, putting his arms around them. “I love you guys,” he said, the Fireball they’d downed earlier sitting heavy on his brain.

 

“We love you too,” Madeline said, smirking. “But I especially love drunk Alex.”

 

“Shut up, Maddie.”

 

“What did I say about calling me Maddie?” She launched herself across the seat into Alex’s lap, shoving her hands under his jacket to tickle him. Full on chaos ensued, and Alex was filled with light and love for these people he called his best friends.

 

Their prom was being held at the Omni, and they downed a few more shots after dinner while they were waiting in the limo line to get up to the front door. Isabelle didn’t drink but Alex shotgunned her a little pot, taking a giant hit and grabbing the back of her head, leaning in close to blow the smoke into her mouth, his lips just brushing hers. She grinned at him as he pulled back, licking his lips.

 

“Good?”

 

“Good.”

 

They got out of the limo, Alex grabbing Leven with one hand and Madeline with the other. Mark and Julie were right inside the lobby, waiting for them. The girls ran up to Mark, hugging him and cooing about how great the two of them looked. They all walked into the ballroom together, looking around at everything in awe.

 

Leven had always been on the prom committee and she had always hated it. They’d made her promise not to do it this year, not her senior year, so that she could actually enjoy it. She was skeptical about how it was going to turn out without her, but even she had to admit that it was gorgeous.

 

If you could find him a high school in America that hasn’t done a Gatsby prom, Alex thought, then you were a champion. But that didn’t make it any less gorgeous. There were strands of pearls hanging from huge chandeliers, giant white feathers in jeweled vases on the tables, surrounded by clumps of bright white flowers. The girls were immediately mobbed by their friends, dressed in bright blues and silvers and blacks.

 

Mark slung his arm around Alex’s shoulder, pulling him over to their table. Leven handed Alex her purse on the way by so he could put it down, Isabelle following suit. The night passed quickly. There was drinking and dancing and people sneaking off to make out.

 

Leven, as it turned out, was one of those people. She had had a crush on this guy Liam for years, but had always been either too proud or too scared to talk to him. Alex thought it was probably a little bit of both. But that night Liam had come up to her to ask her to dance, and in a quick whispered conversation Alex told her to go.

 

“But I’m leaving you all alone,” she hissed.

 

“I’m not alone.” He smirked at her. “That was the whole point of all of us going together.”

 

“Yeah, but I’m your date.”

 

“It’s fine, I promise. If you don’t go, I’ll be pissed.”

 

“Promise?”

 

“Promise.”

 

He watched Leven walk up to Liam, taking his hand with a beatific look on her face. They went out onto the dance floor, Leven putting her arms around his neck. Alex looked on for a couple of moments, grinning at them, before Isabelle came over to him and sat down, kicking her shoes off.

 

“What are you doing?” he asked her, looking around for Jack.

 

“Oh, they’re all over there being creeps and talking to Gaia,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. Alex laughed – Jack and Dayo had been obsessed with this softball player, Gaia, for almost as long as Leven had been into Liam. He looked over at the guys, and just over Dayo’s broad shoulder he caught a glimpse of Nicole. She was dancing with one of the baseball players, someone Alex didn’t really know.

 

Isabelle caught him looking, and even though he didn’t really care, it still wasn’t a fun feeling. “Hey,” she said. “You wanna get out of here?”

 

He paused only for a moment. “Yes.” He stood up, following her towards the door.

 

Isabelle held out her hand, turning around to look at him. She was backlit by the bright lights of the hallway outside the ballroom – he could barely even see her face, but she looked like an angel, her dark hair haloed by the lights. She grinned at him, wrinkling her nose. He took her hand, holding onto it tightly, and followed her.

 

They ended up on the roof of the hotel, looking down at the lights of the city. She moved close to the edge of the hotel, resting her hands on the guard rail. Alex grabbed her, pulling her back a little. “I’m not gonna fall, you freak,” she told him, laughing, and pulled him closer. It really was pretty, even though he was scared out of his mind (not that he was going to tell Isabelle that). He looked down at Isabelle, who didn’t even notice. She was too busy staring at all the lights and the cars and the city.

 

He had always loved Isabelle. Of course he had. They were best friends. He’d known Madeline first – she was in his grade, but her twin sister was always with her and it wasn’t long before they didn’t think of Isabelle as her twin sister anymore, but one of them. They didn’t date each other; it was an unspoken rule. In Alex’s opinion, Mark had always had a huge crush on Leven, but he would never admit it.

 

And he would be lying to himself if he said he’d never thought about it. I mean, look at the three of them. Look at Isabelle. She was gorgeous, any idiot could see that. But he had never done anything about it, and he sure as hell wasn’t planning on it.

 

Or at least he wasn’t, until now, until she turned and looked at him, skyline glittering behind her.

 

“Hey,” she said, smiling up at him.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Are you having fun? Even though you ended up all alone?”

 

“I’m not alone. I have you.”

 

“You do.”

 

Before Alex really knew what was happening, they were kissing. It wasn’t a slow burn, lead up to it, see it coming sort of kiss. He wasn’t even sure if he had started it, but all of a sudden it was happening. She was reaching up for him, slipping her hand under the back of his collar and resting it on the pressure point on the back of his neck, his heart beating under her fingers, and he thought she was just going in for a hug, but suddenly she was right there, her lips on his.

 

And in that moment Alex realized everything he’d been missing, felt like all the time he’d spent not kissing this girl was wasted time. He closed his eyes, still seeing the lights of the skyline behind his lids, Isabelle’s mouth warm on his. He fell into it, stepping closer to her and pushing her backwards until she hit the ledge behind her, guardrail at her back. He slid his hands down her back, hoisting her up onto the ledge. And when he pulled back, breathing hard, to look at her, she was lit up by the city.

 

“More,” Isabelle said, grabbing his tie and pulling him closer to stand in between her legs. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest he was sure she could hear it. He brought his hand up to her neck, sliding it around under her hair, brushing the strands out of her face. “More.” He kissed her again, hard, insistently, like the world would end if he didn’t have more of her right this second.

 

“I love you,” Alex mumbled into her mouth. “I love you so much.”

 

She sat back, running her hand along his forehead. “I love you more.”

 

“Shut _up_ , Fuhrman.”

 

She reached towards him, pulling him under again. It could have been seconds or minutes or hours that he stood in front of her like that, her arms around him, his mouth on hers. She grew more persistent, pulling back to plant kisses on his jaw and cheek and neck. He was so focused on having her right here in front of him like this that he didn’t realize that she had moved her hands down, slipping them in between the buttons of his shirt and slowly undoing them one by one.

 

“Hey,” he pulled back, stilling her hands.

 

She looked up at him, blinking, the stars glittering in her eyes. “Hey.” Her voice was rough. She licked her lips. “What’s up?”

 

“You know I haven’t… before…” He shifted back and forth, tightening his hand on her hip.

 

“I haven’t either.”

 

“I know.” Of course he knew. They’d only been friends since they were kids. They knew everything about each other. “I just want to make sure you’re sure.”

 

“Oh, I’m sure.” Isabelle’s eyes were glassy. “Are you?”

 

“Shit, Is.” He leaned in, moving his lips over the soft skin of her neck, his words trapped in between them. “I’m sure.”

 

It moved quickly, Isabelle pulling his shirt off, jacket already discarded on the ground, Alex unzipping her dress and letting it fall to the ground before settling her back onto the ledge. And as he fit himself into her, he kept his eyes wide open, smelling her skin and hearing her in his ear and watching the lights behind her, the cars below, the warm breeze around them, and he knew it would never get any better than this.

_I’m on my way_

_Driving at ninety down those country lanes_

_Singing to “Tiny Dancer”_

_And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real_

_We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill_

No one had a good story about losing their virginity. All of his friends in college had horror stories about getting drunk and making dumb decisions or just doing it because all of their friends had or doing it with their high school sweetheart and then breaking up almost immediately afterwards. He was glad his wasn’t like that. Sure, he and Isabelle had lost touch, and sure, prom night was the mother of all clichés. But it had been perfect.

 

They’d stayed up on the roof for the rest of the night, stretched out under the stars. Their phones were going off like crazy, their friends wondering where they were, but they didn’t answer them, staying in the moment for as long as possible.

 

It got closer and closer to midnight, when they were supposed to leave and go to the after party at Mark’s house. Isabelle rolled over on top of him, blotting out the sky behind her. “You know,” she said conversationally, like it wasn’t weird at all that his best friend was sitting naked on top of him. “It was perfect.”

 

He smirked at her, breaking into a laugh when she flicked him in the throat. “It was for me too, Belle,” he said, sitting up and pulling her with him, burying his face in her hair, hands spread out across her back. “Perfect.”

 

For the rest of the night and high school and the summer, they looked at each other like they had a secret, like nothing else mattered. Of course, it wasn’t a secret for long, not in their group of friends. Isabelle told the girls and Alex told the guys, and they all talked to each other. And then, of course, there was an incident at Mark’s graduation party where Leven caught them in the bathroom together. A lot of screaming ensued, mostly about how she needed to pour bleach into her eyeballs to get the horrible images out of her brain.

 

At the end of the summer, he went off to Columbia and she went to Stanford. They were almost exactly three thousand miles apart, a forty-five hour drive. He had Google mapped in the night before she left, tracing the route with his finger, through Pennsylvania and Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, Wyoming and Nevada before you even hit California. They had never talked about what would happen next, just focusing on what was happening at the time.

 

The night before she was due to leave, she snuck Alex into her room, leaving the window open, warm summer air following him inside. “Hey baby,” she whispered, pulling him into her bed and sticking her cold hands up under her shirt. She was always cold, even in the middle of summer.

 

“You asshole,” he said, muffling his laugh in her neck as she pulled his shirt off over his head.

 

“You love me anyways.”

 

He would remember that night for the rest of his life, would remember moving over top of her and looking down and thinking how much he loved this girl. He snuck back out as the sun came up, going feet first out the window. When he turned around to close it behind him, Isabelle was standing right there, leaning out the window to grab his collar and pull him back, elbows resting on the sill.

 

“I love you, Alex,” she whispered in his ear, kissing his cheek and the corner of his mouth, finally meeting his lips with hers. He closed his eyes, feeling her against him one last time. “I love you so fucking much.”

 

He pulled back after a few minutes, cupping her jaw in his hands, memorizing how she looked at that exact moment. He knew that if he didn’t leave now, he never would. “I’ll see you soon.”

 

“Soon.”

_Fifteen years old and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes_

_Running from the law through the backfields and getting drunk with my friends_

_Had my first kiss on a Friday night, I don’t reckon that I did it right_

_But I was younger then_

_Take me back to when we found weekend jobs when we got paid_

_We’d buy cheap spirits and drink them straight_

_Me and my friends have not thrown up in so long, oh how we’ve grown_

_But I can’t wait to go home_

Weirdly enough, Madeline had actually been his first kiss in a spin the bottle game during ninth grade. It wasn’t anything to write home about; it was weird enough that it had been Madeline in the first place.

 

They had gotten a little bit older, started smoking and drinking together, driving around the back roads of Charlotte on Friday nights. There wasn’t much else to do there, but they always found something fun. Mark’s parents were gone a lot, so he almost always had the parties on the weekends.

 

One Friday night when they were sixteen, Mark was down in the basement trying to drag a keg upstairs, Jack and Dayo not doing much to help, standing there laughing instead. “Will you help me, for fuck’s sake?” Mark snarled at them, hunched over the keg in the middle of the stairs, trying not to let go because if he did it would go tumbling down the steps.

 

“No can do, Reardon,” Dayo said, plopping himself down on the top step. “But it looks like you’re doing great all on your own.”

 

“If this falls, it’s on you.”

 

“I can live with that.”

 

“And there will be no beer.”

 

Dayo looked at Jack, pausing for a second. “Oh, shit, you’re right.” They jumped up, racing down to help him.

 

This left Alex in the kitchen with Julie. She and Mark had just started dating, but Alex already knew that he didn’t like her. She was too loud, too in your face, too PDA to get along with. One time Alex was sleeping over at Mark’s house and heard them having sex in the shower connected to Mark’s room at one in the morning. He’d had to throw shoes and beer cans and a Jersey Shore DVD case at the door to get them to stop, screaming at them to shut up the whole time. That about did it for Alex, and now he just did his best to pretend that she did not exist.

 

But tonight she came and jumped up on the counter by where he was standing. She handed him a joint, and he took it, shrugging. She talked incessantly; she never ever shut up apparently. He took a couple of drags off the joint, one right after the other, even though he knew it would catch up to him quickly.

 

He didn’t really know what she was saying since he was doing his best to ignore her completely, but she kept talking and getting closer to his face and the joint wasn’t really doing it for him anymore. “Um… where’s Mark?” he said lamely, knowing full well where Mark was.

 

He was saved by Isabelle, who came flying up to him and wrapping him up. “Hey baby,” she squealed. He grabbed her around the waist, steadying her.

 

“How many beers have you had?”

 

“None,” she said, smirking up at him.

 

“Plus…”

 

“Three. But I needed them, Alex!”

 

“Sure you did, little one.”

 

And then she was kissing him, Julie fading into the background. It didn’t feel weird; he didn’t think about the fact that he was kissing his best friend, that this was completely new territory for both of them. He kissed her back, because unlike kissing Madeline or Nicole or Gaia, it just felt right.

 

“Come on,” she said cheerfully, pulling back and grabbing his hand. “Let’s go outside.”

 

_I’m on my way_

_Driving at ninety down those country lanes_

_Singing to “Tiny Dancer”_

_And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real_

_We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill_

The bright lights of downtown Charlotte came into view in front of him, lighting up the sky, and all of a sudden it didn’t matter how long he’d been driving or how tired he was. He was home.

 

He drove through downtown, the dogs sitting up in the backseat and sticking their heads out of the window, letting in the cold air. Before long, he was pulling up in the driveway at his parents’ sprawling country house, cars already scattered around. He saw Natalie’s, Nick’s, Sophia’s, knew he was the last to arrive, knew they would expect nothing less.

 

Alex got out of the car, letting the dogs out onto the front lawn to stretch and go to the bathroom. As he was pulling his bags out of the car, a couple of dark figures came out of the house, shrieking and running towards him.

 

“Alex!” Natalie launched herself at him, and he grabbed her, giving her a big hug, Sophia right behind.

 

They all trailed behind him as he headed into the house, dogs following behind. He said hello to his parents and Nick, giving hugs and kisses all around. His mom tried to stuff him with food, as she was wont to do, and of course he wasn’t going to say no.

 

“So what are you going to do while you’re here?” his mom asked as they sat in the living room, watching Alex stuff his face with spaghetti.

 

He chewed for a moment. “I don’t know. Relax, I guess. Work has been crazy.”

 

“Are you gonna see your friends at all?” Natalie asked him, a smirk on her face. He knew exactly what she was insinuating. He had always been really close with Natalie. She knew everything about him, including when he lost his virginity.

 

“Maybe.” He shrugged, trying to resist the urge to kick his younger sister in the shin. “I’ll send them a text or something.”

 

But he stayed up late drinking with his dad and Nick and completely forgot, finally remembering around lunchtime the next day.

 

**Alex: Wolf pack bonfire… who’s in? Tomorrow night, my house.**

**Jack: I’ll bring beer if Dayo brings snacks.**

**Dayo: Man… Why do I always gotta cook?**

**Leven: Who said cook??? We aren’t fancy.**

**Mark: No no, he meant fancy. I want that bruschetta shit.**

**Dayo: …… I’m not your bitch, bitch.**

**Isabelle: Calm down boys. We’ll be there ;)**

_One friend left to sell clothes_

_One works down by the coast_

_One had two kids but lives alone_

_One’s brother overdosed_

_One’s already on his second wife_

_One’s just barely getting by_

_But these people raised me_

_And I can’t wait to go home_

Leven was first to arrive. Leven was always the first to arrive, and she usually turned up with an entourage of bags. This was no different. She blew through Alex’s front door, cold air coming in behind her, giving him a hug and dumping her purse and six grocery bags on the kitchen floor.

It was weird seeing her here. She’d spent hours and hours here in high school. All of them had, until it seemed like his friends were just part of the family. His siblings were their siblings, his parents their parents. They were like one big family. But it had been years, and seeing twenty-four year old Leven in his mom’s kitchen was tripping him out a little bit. She was as gorgeous as always, hair bright against the darkness outside.

“I’ve missed you, Alex!” she said, smiling over at him as she began unloading alcohol and snacks from her grocery bags, piling it all onto the counter.

She had gone through a tough time after high school. She’d gone off to Clemson, all set on getting her business degree so she could start her own design company. But after her sophomore year, her brother had died of a drug overdose, and she’d moved home to be closer to her parents. Alex knew that it had almost completely ruined her, and it had taken a lot of convincing from Alex, from Isabelle, from Dayo, from countless others, to convince her that she needed to go back to school, needed to take care of herself.

The rest of the guys got there next, Dayo immediately getting to work to make bruschetta for Mark, spreading everything out over the counter. Leven settled herself on a stool, watching him cook and reminded Alex again of how everything used to be.

He went out on the deck with Mark and Jack, cracked a beer open against the railing. His dad always used to yell at him for that, the wood ringing the porch marred with tiny scratches and gouges. “Cheers, boys,” he said, clinking his bottle against theirs.

They sat down on the deck chairs, Mark propping his legs up against the railing and pulling out his phone. “How’s Maria?” Alex asked him as Mark thumbed out a message before tossing his phone on the table behind them, ignoring the buzzing.

Mark shrugged. “Same old.” He had gotten married to Julie straight out of high school. Unsurprisingly to everyone but Mark, it didn’t last. They had made it a whole year before they’d gotten divorced. Alex was just grateful they hadn’t had kids because that would have made his life a whole lot harder. Just look at Jack. And after Julie had come Maria, some girl he had met in his organic chemistry class at MIT, because as smart as Mark was, he could be really dumb. They got married immediately after graduating college. Alex didn’t think that one was going to last either, but he kept his opinions to himself.

The kitchen door burst open, letting light and sound and warmth out onto the deck. Alex looked up, a couple of figures silhouetted by the light.

“Alex?”

He jumped up, almost knocking his beer over. “Belle.” He made it over to her in two steps, felt her arms go around his neck, and picked her up. She smelled exactly how he had remembered, like flowers and green apple and vanilla.

“Holy shit,” she whispered in his ear. “I missed you.”

“You’re telling me.” He put her down, Madeline already cooing over the pictures of Jack’s daughters.

“How are they doing?” Isabelle asked, going over to grab Jack’s phone out of Madeline’s hand.

“Hey!”

“Piss off, you had your turn.”

“They’re good,” Jack said, his eyes lighting up the way they always did when he talked about his girls. “Bailey is finally walking, and Sammie is terrorizing the both of us, as always.”

“You get them every weekend?”

Jack hesitated, his eyes clouding over. “Every other now. You know their mom.”

Oh boy, did they. They didn’t talk about her ever. Alex had always been of the opinion that she had gotten pregnant on purpose to keep Jack around, and that if it didn’t work the first time, it definitely didn’t the second time. Jack had been miserable, the girls the only light in his life, and he’d left. But of course, she hadn’t let him take his daughters, and he was constantly fighting for custody, for more time, for legal rights.

“It’ll get better, man,” Alex said, grabbing the cigarette out of his mouth and chucking it over the side of the deck. “No smoking. We made a deal.” Jack made a face at him.

“Food’s ready,” Dayo roared from inside the house. It had always been like that, Dayo cooking for them and pretending to be mad about it even though he loved it. He was a professional chef now, trying to open his own restaurant in Charleston. He was having a hard time of it, at least that’s what he’d told Alex. But he was getting by, even if it was just barely.

“What are you up to lately, Mads?” Alex draped his arm over her shoulder as they headed inside the house, grabbing plates and piling them full.

“I’m working over at Cedar Island, the wildlife refuge.”

“No shit? You like it?”

“Love it.”

“Good.”

They all sat down around the dining room table, glasses of wine and beers and Leven’s rum and Diets scattered everywhere. Just like old times, except they were all grown up now.

It was a good night. They all stayed up late, Dayo got the bonfire going (honestly, if they didn’t have Dayo they would starve and freeze to death), and they sat around talking, catching up from the past seven years. They talked about everything – Jack’s daughters, Dayo’s restaurant, Madeline’s work, Mark’s marital problems, even Leven’s brother, though only briefly. There were no secrets between the seven of them, never had been. It felt great to be back.

_And I’m on my way_

_I still remember these old country lanes_

_When we did not know the answers_

_And I miss the way you make me feel, it’s real_

_We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill_

Alex was actually nervous. He hadn’t been nervous to go out with a girl in years, probably since high school, now that he thought about it. The last time he had overthought something this much it had probably been prom night actually, which made sense since they were now full circle and he was going out with Isabelle.

 

The bonfire had been winding down, everyone either struggling to stay awake or already passed out in Alex’s basement (Jack). Isabelle was sitting on the couch with Alex in the den, Friends reruns playing in the background, reminiscent of their high school days. Her legs were propped up across his lap, her head on his shoulder. It was like they’d slipped back into being exactly who they always were with each other, no questions asked.

 

“Hey,” he said so she would look up at him. “You wanna go out tomorrow night?”

 

She sat back, looking at him. “Go out where?”

 

“It’s a surprise.” He had a great idea, had thought of it on the long drive down to Charlotte, trying to work up the nerve to ask her.

 

“Oh really.” She smiled at him, that same crooked smile he had seen hundreds of times, hadn’t realized he’d missed it until she was gone.

 

“Really. So is that a yes?”

 

“Of course it’s a yes.” She snuggled back into his side, fitting right under his arm. “It’s always a yes for you.”

 

And that’s how he ended up pulling in front of Isabelle’s house the next night, pulling at his collar nervously. He didn’t know if he should go up to the door or not and ended up sitting in her driveway like an idiot, his phone in his hand. He was getting ready to text her when she came barreling out the door. With Isabelle, everything was a whirlwind.

 

She slid into the front seat, her dress floating around her. “You look…” he trailed off, words completely failing him.

 

“You too.” She grinned at him. “So… where are we going?”

 

He put the car in reverse, backing out of the driveway and trying not to look at her, trying not to let his face give anything away. “You’ll see, Little One.”

 

“Come on. You’re not even gonna give me a hint?”

 

“Definitely not.”

 

It only took them a few minutes to get downtown, the skyscrapers suddenly rising up around them, Christmas lights blanketing the streets and lighting up the sky. “Oh my God,” Isabelle said suddenly, looking out her window. “You are not doing this. We are not doing this!”

 

He didn’t say anything, just smiled at her.

 

They pulled up to the Omni, Alex jumping out and opening her door for her, handing the keys to the valet. All the prom night memories came rushing back to him as he put his hand on the small of Isabelle’s back, following her into the hotel.

 

“Alex!” She looked back at him as they walked into the restaurant, and he was sure she looked close to tears, although that had to be just a trick of the light. “I cannot believe you thought of this.”

 

“Well, the night is just beginning.”

 

They sat down, ordered dinner, had a lot of wine, exactly like prom night except they were over half a decade older and (Alex hoped) a whole lot wiser. “So,” Isabelle said, leaning forward over her dessert plate, her eyes bright. “What’s next?”

 

Alex looked down, his cheeks flushing a little bit. This was the part that he was a little concerned about, didn’t want Isabelle to think he was a douche bag, but let’s be real. That one night with her had been the best night of his short life so far, and if he could do it all over again on a big boy budget, he sure as hell was gonna try.

 

She took the key card that he slid across the table to her, and he waited apprehensively for her answer. She stared down at it for a long time before looking up at him. “The penthouse?”

 

“You deserve a whole lot more than the roof, Belle.”

 

She stood up, pushing her chair in. “Let’s go.”

 

There were a lot of reasons he loved Isabelle, loved her as a friend and a person and maybe more in a different life. And as she bounced towards the elevator in front of him, holding out her hand and looking back at him, he didn’t think he could ever love her anymore than he did in this moment.

 

They got up to the penthouse, and the only thing they could see were the windows, floor to ceiling, ringing the suite. City lights were Isabelle’s thing – her entire Instagram was full of them, from every city she ever went to. And she went to a whole lot of them since she was a buyer for Bloomingdale’s. And now, back home, she stood in front of the windows, looking out at the lights for what felt like forever.

 

“I can’t believe you did this,” she said finally, turning around to look at Alex, her voice hoarse. “Honestly, I don’t know how to say thank you… I don’t know what to say.”

 

“You don’t have to say anything.” He walked towards her, placing one hand on either side of her, not really caring that he was getting palm prints on the windows. “Just… enjoy it.”

 

“I love you, Belle.”

 

“I love you more.”

 

“Shut up, Furhman.”

 

Just like old times.

 

And she kissed him, the lights sparkling behind his eyelids even as he closed them, sliding his hands down her waist and picking her up, carrying her to the bed behind them.

 

When it was over, she sat up, clutching the sheets around her and going back to the window, still staring. He pulled his phone out, taking a picture of her, and she turned around, sticking her tongue out at him.

 

“What are you doing, Ludwig?”

 

“I just wanna remember. Wanna remember this forever.”

 

She came back over to him, laying down and sticking her cold hands under the covers and against his stomach. “Merry Christmas, Alex.”

 

“Merry Christmas, Belle.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for being here. this stemmed from ed sheeran's castle on the hill, obviously, because every time i heard it i just thought alexbelle. i know there are mistakes in this cuz proofreading kind of went out the window since i was on a pretty strict deadline - i'll fix them eventually! thanks to my lovely best friend emily (littlegreys on tumblr) for all her help and support and facts about prom, since i never went to one. tell me what you think! love you all xxxx
> 
> tumblr: catolovesclove


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